considering purchase of summer home in brooklin

[iamhadley]

Ther Brooklin pictures wer mostly from relocation mags and tourist pamphlets. We have visitied York Maine many years ago, and although lovely, is not really rural enough for us. Bar Harbor is too touristy, from what what we have been told. Camden was another possibility but again, mabey too populated. Brooklin just looks quaint and quiet, but on the other hand, there is something to say about having a little bit of a town to browse through.

[Acadianlion]

With all due respect to your sincerity, if you have "been to York, Maine many years ago" and this is your only reference to Maine, then I will again emphasize that unless and until you can come and spend a couple of months touring up and down this long coastline, you should confine your home buying plans to dreaming and looking at pictures in magazines.

Maine is a state of small towns, and if your idea of an ideal town in Maine is, say, Sausalito, California, then you have EXACTLY the right picture of most of the little towns that line the coastline of Maine....just like Sausalito....SEVENTY-FIVE years ago.

Most of Maine's coastal towns have populations of less than 8000 people, and the majority of the small towns have populations of around 1500 or less.

But once again, you really need to put your boots on the ground here, and spend some time wandering around. Maine's largest city is Portland, with a population of around 75000. Remember the mantra: Maine has a larger area than all five other New England states combined, yet has only a bit more than 1.2 million people and the majority of them live in the southwest corner, including the Portland area.

Come visit soon. And remember: York is near the New Hampshire border and the coast line of Maine, with all its little inlets and harbors is around 3000 miles long.

[corgis]

Check out Eastport - It's a small city of 1,650 people on an island.

[maine4.us]

I encourage anyone to do their HOMEWORK before moving to Maine. Acadianlion did a great job of describing Maine the way it is. What Mainers consider minor inconveniences, people from away might well see as a catastrophe. We bought in Maine, and we know the winters are the REAL Maine, and that summer is a wonderful escape from the winters. We have not endured a Maine winter as yet, but I know it is not going to be a picnic. My next door neighbor put it well. In the winter, we sort of den up and make the best of things. We plow the driveway almost twice weekly, and after every storm. We plan on almost $800 a month for heat, and we deal with it.

[willb]

We figure with the price of oil we'll pay 400 a month for fuel starting in October and ending in March. We'll start being cold when we work, and we won't be able to go for the morning walks by November, so we'll play Monopoly with the kids and go to basketball games or just curl up on the couch with a good book. On a few sunny days we'll hike up to the high spot on Shackford Head or go sledding or maybe to Devil's Head. There will sometimes be a supper or a party or some friends coming by to watch the latest delivery from Netflix. The thoughts of lilacs and lupines are dear, but the wind will blow hard and the house will gently rock as it has for the last 110 years, and we'll be glad we bought the down comforter. I would not trade a day like today for any months someplace else, so I'll take some vitamin D everyday in the winter, and love that I am here now.